The Aden Security Department blamed the Houthis after two missiles fell near the city’s international airport on Oct. 16, disrupting a Cairo-bound flight and putting civilian air travel at risk.
Yemen’s Ministry of Transport said the Yemenia plane was evacuated as it prepared to leave for Cairo. A Fly Aden flight arriving from Cairo was in the air at the time, the ministry said. Information Minister Moammar Eryani put the impacts about 500 meters from the departing plane and 100 meters from the runway’s midpoint. He said the passengers and crew were safe.
The Aden Security Department said its initial information showed no deaths. It placed both impacts within airport grounds. The transport ministry located one by the western gate, toward the runway, and the other northwest of the airport.
The ministry said threats to the airport can interrupt civilian travel, including journeys for medical care, and harm air transport and the economy.
Separately on Oct. 16, a Houthi military source quoted by the Houthi-run Saba agency claimed the group had targeted a Saudi command headquarters and weapons stores at Badr camp in Aden. That statement did not identify the weapons used, mention the airport or establish whether either claimed target was hit.
The airport incident followed the Oct. 15 attack on Aden’s Al Maashiq presidential palace. Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said five security personnel were killed in that attack and 16 other people were injured.
U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg told the Security Council on Oct. 9 that fighting had spread across several fronts and that the government had launched a counteroffensive. A U.N. expert panel counted 20 civilian deaths and more than 100 hospitalizations after an earlier attack on Aden airport on Dec. 30, 2020.
The Aden Security Department said it would provide further details when its work was complete. It gave no date for an update.
